Considering everything written before this, I yearn desperately to implore you as a brother or sister. There is a great movement in our world toward the serpent’s gospel and there has been for a long time. Every day we witness ‘churches’ rising and falling. Everyday we see pastors who are leaving the ministry because they have failed morally or are burnt out in their current position. The false Gospel drives the christian to believe, think and act in ways that actually oppose the text of Scripture and, in so believing, thinking or acting, to live in blatant sin before God. Surprisingly, this tendency is so pervasive that I am inclined to think that most people who call themselves ‘Christians’ have never actually been brought under the saving authority of Christ. Don’t stop reading, and please do not assume that I am picking on the average church-goer. Later I will also plead with both non-believers and church leadership; and church leadership (yes, including pastors) is included in this present category since we are all members of our perspective local churches. Here, though, are some observations that I have made, not in any specific church, but in many local churches today.
Clubhouse Mentality
The serpent urged Adam and Eve to gain for themselves at the cost of following God’s direction. Adam and Even then tried to achieve a sort-of godlikeness on their own. In many churches, members try to create the perfect atmosphere, accept the right kind of people, ignore or complain about the problems of the world, and expect that others will live in a way that they have approved before joining (or even attending) a church. We have for too long tried to make our churches look and feel like what we think heaven will be. As a result, we only accept people who look perfect. It is the sin of Adam and Eve. We have tried to achieve some sort of godlikeness on our own and in our churches.
The people in of the organizational church have done this in a variety of ways:
There may be other things to add to this list, but these are the most prominent. Sadly, this is a category that belongs to many smaller churches. Many of these smaller churches say they want growth, but are unwilling to make the changes necessary to actually reach people with the Gospel.
Bad Expectations
Many church members have expectations that are based on something other than Scripture. They are either based on preference, experience, or on the way that the church has been operated in the past (even if it is contrary to Scripture). As one example, Acts, chapter 6, tells us specifically two things. First, it is absolutely wrong for a pastor, elder, apostle, and overseer to perform any tasks that would cause him to neglect the ministry of the word. Yet, in churches world-wide, pastors are required or asked to perform tasks that cause them to be unprepared when performing the ministry of the word (preaching, teaching, evangelism, and sometimes biblical counseling). As a result, most churches serve bread crumbs when people are in desperate need of a spiritual meal. Second, no group in the church should be neglected. Yet, churches favor one group over another and fail to, according to the method described in Acts 6, select church members to serve the neglected groups so that their pastors do not have to live in sin during their time of service.
We wonder why so many pastors have to leave the ministry because of moral failure. We wonder why so many church leaders (90% of pastors) are burnt-out or exhausted. We wonder why a majority of pastors today have bad marriages (77%). We wonder why a majority of our leaders experience depression on a daily basis (71%). We wonder why only 23% of pastors actually feel content in their churches. Part of the reason is that many churches, by the anti-biblical expectations they set, force pastors and members alike to live in constant sin; and worse, to do so in the name of Christ.13
When these wrong expectations are set, we create for others a gospel of how-to’s and place ourselves in God’s place (figuratively speaking of course). In reality, it is God who gifts roles and responsibilities to His people. It is God who has given a guidebook as we strive to fulfill His calling in our lives. We should not hold others, or ourselves, to our own expectations, but instead encourage one another to follow God’s direction as God has given it.
Within this line of thinking, we might also imagine that when we expect others to act a certain way, we might need to check our expectations according to Scripture as we try to be understanding of others. Let us never drive anyone away because of the expectations that we have set without the direction that God has provided for us.
General Selfishness
As church members contribute to the decisions of the church as a whole, there is usually a general selfishness. The question is asked, “How do I feel about this,” or “How can we do what I think is best for the church?” As described in the previous chapters, this is the false gospel of the serpent playing out in our church ministry. Most churches that I have observed operate according to the standard of the serpent. As a result, the by-laws are worshipped, the church is reduced to simply trying to fill needs that it has at the current moment, and no investment is made for the sake of Christ’s Gospel. It is time for the local church to stop being so self-centered. It is a hindrance to the work of Christ’s Gospel through that church. Any good pastor who cares about the work of the true Gospel will simply not be able to stay long at a church choosing to operate according to the serpent’s “how-to.”
Can we rise above this selfishness? The answer is simple. Stop asking, “What do we need,” and begin asking, “What does God want us to do no matter the cost?” We stop asking, “How can we take care of ourselves,” (this is Adam and Eve all over again in many churches today) and ask instead, “What decision requires us to practice faith in Christ?” Not easy, but simple. Until we begin operating like this, our churches and our ministries will not be blessed by God who challenges us to deny ourselves. In fact, it is not only a challenge, but a command in Scripture. If we do not deny ourselves, we cannot follow Christ. If we cannot follow Christ, we will not be with Christ in the end. Whoever would want to go with Christ must deny self (Luke 9:23).
As a pastor, I want to be entirely honest with you. The biggest problem that I have experienced in any church that I have been in is that at least some of the people are hearers of the Word and not doers. God’s word is preached (either rightly or wrongly). The word is received. Then people live and the church is operated in direct contradiction to the instruction that God has given, according, instead, to the false gospel of the serpent. This is what has been the greatest burnout for me at any church that I have been in where I have experienced burn-out. This alone has been the greatest discouragement for me. This, I believe, is the biggest reason churches are unable to keep good pastors: many of them operate in a way that is more of Satan than of the Christ that the pastor tries so desperately to follow and lead the church to follow.
Spectator Mentality
One other way in which the serpent’s gospel convinces those in church concerns church growth specifically. It seems that so many operate under the assumption that if we build it, people will come. What is this but a manifestation of the serpent’s Gospel? Somehow today, many local churches have convinced themselves that just doing things a certain way or having the right personality (often a preacher or a music leader) will draw people in. Perhaps this is one of the greatest downfalls of the western church within the last one-hundred years. We expect sinners to come to us and be saved. Furthermore, we expect that inviting people who are not under the saving authority of Christ to a church meeting will produce fruit. This does not make much since and is one of the main contributors to local churches going into decline. We invite people to a church meeting without sharing the Gospel and inviting them to Christ. This is shallow and causes people to be more concerned with securing what they have built than actually working as a child of God. Because of this, outreach is often confused with in-reach, and evangelism is confused with sharing the products and services of an organization. This leads further to an unbiblical expectation that the pastors or ministry leaders will be the only ones who practice evangelism.
While I love Billy Graham and believe his heart to be pure in motivation, there is an illness that resulted from his crusades and many others that are or have been similar. This includes many church camps and Christian concert and evangelism tours in our day. Those who are wooed into a relationship with Christ, whether genuine or false, automatically have a spectator mentality regarding their own ministries or churches. Not only is this not practical, but it is unbiblical. Never in Scripture are we told to build and get people to come. We are, in opposition to this, told to go. Going to where sinful people are at and sharing the story of Christ is the primary method of evangelism.
If the Gospel of Christ states clearly that we cannot come to Christ on our own, then it must be our understanding that others cannot either. If they cannot, why would they ever seek Christ on their own or step into a church on their own volition because they have been invited? They would not. We must go to them if we want them to receive the Gospel from us. Ironically, here, it means that the Christian, fearing he might ruin his witness, who avoids sinful places is avoiding the work of evangelism that God has called him to. The only way we can ruin our witness is by choosing not to be a witness in the most sinful places. Even Jesus Christ modeled this for us. To avoid helping sinners who might take advantage of us or to avoid places where sinners are is to buy in to the false gospel of the serpent, and this applies to pastors just as it applies to every other person who is in Christ. We must stop worrying about our image, and, instead, take the image of Christ to a sinful world that is in dire need of regeneration.